Sunday, 23 September 2012

The cakes of Amsterdam

Mr CC and I are back from our travels to Amsterdam, the
capital city of the Netherlands. I hadn’t
expected that much from Amsterdam in terms of cakes and baking and was
therefore pleasantly surprised by what we found...albeit most of it coming from
one shop!

The star of the show, in terms of baking, is the wacky and
rather wonderful De Taart van m’n Tante which is well worth the tram ride out of the town centre to reach it. Take a No24 tram and you’re there in about 10
minutes.We went twice and thoroughly
enjoyed the quality of the baking and the ambience. There was a large menu of delights:

Which looked as good as they sounded:

And were enjoyed in a comfortable and eclectic setting:

On our first visit I went for the Dutch apple tart, and Mr
CC the chocolate truffle cake. I loved the
generous helping of cinnamon with the apples – a perfect combination. Note that Mr CC started on his cake before I
could get a photo...proof of how desperately he wanted to get stuck in!

On our second visit I chose the Mon Cherie which was a
lovely balance of sweet and tart, and Mr CC chose the lemon tart. They get top marks for the generosity of the
portion size:

I had read about Dutch sugar bread (a spicy eggy bread) being a popular breakfast
treat and was keen to try it. We found a
cafe serving it along with homemade jam.
It was amazing – like warm and spicy bread pudding but much
lighter. The homemade jam was left quite
tart and complimented it perfectly. I
ate this whole plate without drawing breath:

The final Dutch speciality I wanted to sink my fangs into
was poffertjes – little puffy pancakes.
I expected these to feature on more menus than they did. For the first few days we always saw them
when we didn’t want them, and then, when I did want them we couldn’t find
them! Luckily, when we visited the
Waterlooplein flea market we found this stall selling them:

Poffertjes are small puffy pancakes. I watched the stall holder to see how he
prepared them – after cooking he dabbed butter on them which melted, and then a
liberal dredging of vanilla sugar. Need
I say they tasted divine?

This isn’t cake related but amused me. When we walked through the Chinatown region
of Amsterdam we spotted a fixed price all-you-can-eat buffet. What set this apart was the time limit. I’d never seen a buffet limited to an hour
and wondered how they policed it – does each table come with an alarm
clock? I liked how it added a food
challenge, Man v Food element
to the meal. And no...we didn’t try it!

i've never been to amsterdam, so it was nice to travel vicariously through your post. cakewise, that shop had quite a decent selection. i loved its interior, and there's nothing i like more than sampling local street food from markets, as like the poffertjes you enjoyed.

Read this great novel!

Look at this great website

Follow my ambitious attempt to find a recipe for a cake, biscuit, pie or tart for every single one of the 39 traditional English counties!

The Caked Crusader and Boy Wonder

Cartoon by Cakeyboi

About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

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Cake Achievement in Film and Television Arts (CAFTA)

Have you seen a cake in a film or tv show that deserves recognition? Has a cupcake upstaged a beefcake?

If so, please let me know and that cake could win a coveted CAFTA award. Email me your suggestions, with a photo of the cake if possible.

About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.